Oilburners



Dec. 25, 1962 H. J. H. eoossaws OILBURNERS 2 Shets-Sheet 1 Filed July 7, 1959 I I I l flame/.1: h. Gaassz/vs INVENTOR. IZY/MEEINI.

fir WHEY OILBURNERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July '7. 1959 N MQ wvi mm Mm m INVENTOR. HENRI JAN HENDRIK GOOSSENS ATTORNEY.

United States Patent ()filice Patented Dec. 25, 193

3,070,151 OELBURNERS Henri J. H. Goossens, The Hague, Netherlands, assignor to Stookunie N.V., Delft, Netherlands, a Butch limitedliability company Filed July 7, 1959, Ser. No. 825,549 Claims priority, application Netherlands July 9, 1958 3 Claims. (Cl. 155-28) This invention relates to an oilburner with a pressure sprayer of the return flow type. Such burners comprise a number of regulating valves by which the size of the flame is regulated. For this purpose the pressure of the oil returning from the burner pipe can be adjusted. The valve system also ensures that when starting the operation of the burner, oil is sprayed only after an adequate pressure of the oil has been built up in the valve system.

The object of the present invention is to provide electrical means adapted to shorten the starting period, to improve the reliability of starting and further to ensure against premature spraying of oil out of the burner nozzle.

It is known in the art to heat an oil pipe line in a burner system in order to lower the oil viscosity which can be rather hi h when the burner system has been switched off for some time and, in this way, a shortening of the starting period could be obtained to some extent.

According to the present invention a small quantity of electrical heating energy is supplied at special critical points in the system by relatively simple and cheap means which achieve a more reliable and quicker readiness of the system for starting with increased certainty and reliability in service and a more economical use of the oil. The quicker action obtained with the invention makes it desirable at the same time to increase the security against false starts and for this purpose electrical means are provided which respond to the oil pressure built up in one of the regulating valve chambers and control the oil pump motor.

These electrical means primarily provided to ensure against false starts also may act as a safeguard during normal working of the burner by responding totailures and obstructions in the valves and oil conduits.

The abovementioned objects and the means by which they are obtained shall be better understood from the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention shown in the drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an oil burner embodying the invention taken along a plane parallel to the sprayer tube and wherein a schematic wiring diagram showing eiectric connections of the burner is drawn in dotted lines; and

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view showing the oil supplying system of the oil burner of'FlG. 1 along with the associated electrical system.

The drawings only show those parts of the oil burner and its fuel control system that are necessary to an understanding of the present invention.

The illustrated oil burner includes a sprayer tube 1 surrounded by a wide air duct 2 accommodated in a housing 3, which, at the bottom, is connected to a duct 4 for the supply of air, and in which an air regulating flap 5 is provided.

The sprayer tube 1 is provided with a nozzle 6 and a flame shaper plate 7, located in the outlet of the air tube 2. Adjusting knobs 8 and 9 serve to displace the duct 2 for varying the position or the open end of the air duct 2 relative to the shaper plate 7 and the effective length of the air duct 2.

The ignition device It is connected, as indicated by a broken line 11, with an ignition transformer 12 which is connected to an electric current supply by way of a relay unit, indicated at 13, and which also controls oil pump motor M and the burner flame in dependence on the regulating apparatus, as described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 2.

A regulating valve assembly including a metal body or block 14 wherein valve chambers and valves for regulating the pressure of the oil flowing to the burner pipe and flowing back therefrom are accommodated is shown in the lower right hand portion of FiG. 1. As shown by dotted lines, a flat metal body 15 is mounted against the outside surface of block 14 and has a large surface in contact with the surface of the block This metal body 15 encloses an electrical heating element 16 and thanks to the good heat transfer between the body 15 and the metal block 14 all valve chambers in the latter are maintained at an. appropriate temperature.

The sensitivity of the regulation is hereby influenced to such an extent that a quicker adaptation of the flame and therewith also a better eficiency is obtained.

A good accessibility of the parts is maintained and by one single heating element all the valve chambers in the regulating block are jointly heated thanks to the good thermal conductivity of the metal body of the block 14.

The rear end of the sprayer tube 1 is provided with a chamber 17 whereinto an electrical heating element 18 is introduced. The feeding of oil to the sprayer head is effected from this chamber 17, to which a pipe 19 for the supply of oil and a pipe 2% for the return of excess oil is connected. The oil is in physical contact with the heating element 13 in the chamber l7, and is therefore also maintained in the most favourable condition at this critical location to ensure that, in dependence on the regulating device an entirely reproducible prescribed volume of oil leaves the burner pipe nozzle e per unit of time. This condition is immediately obtained upon ignition of the burner, and the ignition itself is improved by the heating of the oil at the two described locations.

Both heating elements, 16 and 13, as well as the ignition device 10 are electrically operated via the relay unit 13 and in such a way that, as soon as the burner is extinguished and the supply of oil to the sprayer is stopped by the regulating apparatus, the oilburner relay switches on these heating elements for the sprayer tube lit and for the regulating block 14. This will be suificient to subsequently obtain the speedy ignition of tie oil and an efficient action of the oil pressure regulation immediately upon ignition.

The regulating block 14- has valve chambers, valves and pipe-ways for the oil pressure regulation and is shown separately in FIG. 2 but the working thereof need not be explained in detail for the purpose of the invention. Only that part of block 14 containing a bypass valve needle 32, is shown in section, and the remainder of the regulating valve assembly may be arranged and constructed in the manner which is shown and described in detail in my co-pending application, Serial No. 825,539, filed'luly 7, 1959. The valve needle 32 is enclosed in a valve chamber 33, which with the valve opened by a solenoid 24 is connected through the pipe-way 35, with an oil return pipe 26 extending back to the oil tank or reservoir T (FIG. 2).

The oil supply pipe 27 from the oil pump 23, communicates, as indicated by the broken line 14a through an adjusting valve chamber (not shown) in the regulating block 14 with the opening 39, in the bypass valve chamber 33. In FIG. 2, the oil pipes are indicated outside of the regulating block by double lines, and the electric conductors by single lines. The oilburner relay unit is indicated, as in FIG. 1, by the reference numeral 13. The line 31 leads from it to the solenoid 24. The connection 22 provides for the switching of the electric motor M of the oil pump 23. The connections 23 and 34 lead to the motor M of the blower and to the ignition device it), ll, 12 (FIG. 1) for the burner. When the pump 28 is operated, but the bypass valve needle 32 is lifted from its seat by energizing of solenoid 24, the oil from the pipe 27 is circulated through the bypass duct 39, 33, 35 and the return flow pipe 26. if the electric circuit 3-1 is interrupted by the relay unit 13, so that the solenoid 24 is switched off and the bypass valve 32 is closed, then the regulating valve system (not shown) in the regulating valve block 1.4 comes into action and a pressure is built up, whereby the oil from the pipe 27 is conveyed, as indicated by broken line 14b, to the burner tube 1 through pipe 19 and oil is sprayed from nozzle 6, ignition taking place at an exactly predetermined moment after a suliicient pressure has been built up, provided that the solenoid 24 is switched oit and the blower motor M is switched on under the control of the relay-unit 13.

The excess oil led to the burner tube l, but not into the flame, is conveyed back from the burner tube 1, through the return pipe 29, to the regulating valve system in the block 14, where the regulation takes place in dependence on the oil supply pressure and the return flow pressure. The return of the unused oil via the return flow pipe 26 now takes place through the passage 38 which is then in communication with the return pipe Ztl by way of a regulating valve chamber (not shown) in block 14, as indicated by the broken line 7.40.

When the valve 32. in the closed position while the pump 28 is operated and the valve regulating mechanism is not yet working normally, so that access to the duct 33 is still hampered, for instance because the valve 32 is sticking fast after the previous closure or owing to a fault in the switching relay-unit, the oil would be prematurely conveyed to the burner pipe 1 and the oil flame would be ignited late or not at all. The same time, however, the pressure in the valve chamber 33 will increase above its normal value. An oil pipe 29 connects the valve chamber 33 permanently to a pressure operated switch 3%, which when under such abnormal pressure operates an electric contact 21, connected through a conductor 42 to the relay unit 13. Thus, upon the occurrence of failures or obstructions, the switch 30 causes the oil pump 28 to be immediately switched ofi.

The installation will consequently also work, when an abnormally high pressure is produced in the valve chamber 33 as a result of any irregularity other than that already mentioned, for instance, owing to a derangement or" the valve mechanism.

The device may further be so designed that the normal working pressure in the valve chamber 33 will be suificient to operate the pressure operated switch 36, and the pump motor 28 is then switched off via the relay unit 13, only when the relays therein are not or not yet in the position required for normal operation of the burner and for ignition of the flame at the desired pressure with a normal air supply.

This important supplementary safeguard may be obtained by adding only a few extra elements, because the disposition of an oil pressure manometer on the control panel is in any case desirable and the already available relay unit 13 can be utilized for control of the oil pump motor.

What I claim is:

1. In combination, an oil burner tube having a nozzle at one end for spraying oil supplied thereto through said tube, a regulating valve assembly having a metal block forming the housing thereof, an oil supply line extending to said housing and having an oil pump interposed therein, a return oil conduit extending from said housing, means defining a chamber at the other end of said burner tube, a supply conduit extending from said housing to said chamber for carrying the oil to be sprayed from said nozzle, an excess oil conduit extending from said chamber to said housing for returning excess oil to the latter, said housing having a short circuit duct therein for communicating said oil supply line with said return oil conduit, a valve interposed in said short circuit duct for controlling the flow through the latter, a metal body mounted against the outside of said metal block forming the housing of the regulating valve assembly and having a large area of contact with said block, a first electric heating element in said metal body for heating the oil in said regulating valve assembly, and a second electric heating element in said chamber for heating the oil supplied to said burner tube and the excess oil returned from the latter to said housing.

2. The combination as in claim 1; further comprising an electrical ignition element disposed adjacent said nozzle, a circuit for energizing said ignition element including a transformer, and an electric relay device controlling said circuit; and wherein said first and second electric heating elements have energizing circuits also controlled by said electric relay device so that said heating elements are energized during the inoperative periods of the oil burner.

3. The combination as in claim 2; further comprising a solenoid for operating said valve interposed in the short circuit duct, said electric relay device also controlling said solenoid, a pressure responsive switch controlling the operation of said oil pump, and means subjecting said pressure responsive switch to the pressure in said short circuit duct at said valve interposed in the latter.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,231,764 Laing Feb. ll, 1941 2,306,831 Proctor Dec. 29, 1942 2,802,520 Trabilcy Aug. 13, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 736,168 France Sept. 12, 1932 

